Ill] OF POULTRY 295 



cut' in the walls themselves or firmly attached to 

 them, for movement is harmful when a hen is sit- 



8 ting. When they are going to lay you must strew 

 chaff in their nests, and, when they have laid, this 

 must be taken away and fresh put in its place, for 

 otherwise fleas and other vermin breed in it, and 

 prevent the hen from keeping still — the result being 

 that the eggs are hatched spasmodically or else go 

 bad. They say that when you want a hen to sit, 

 she should not be given more than twenty-five 

 eggs,^ though being a prolific animal she may have 



9 laid more, and that the best time for sitting is 

 between the spring and autumn equinoxes. Accord- 

 could this apply to the first case mentioned, where the nests 

 were cut out in the walls, or to the second, where they were 

 attached to the walls very firmly in order to prevent them 

 from moving? 



I can only suggest, if plena is to be kept, that it should be 

 taken closely with gallinarum (nests full of hens). 



' Aut exculpta aut adjicta. Columella (viii, 3, 4) describes 

 both methods: "The walls should be built thick enough to 

 admit of nests being cut in them . . . for this method is both 

 healthier and more sightly than that adopted by some people 

 who drive stakes well into the walls and then place wicker 

 baskets upon them." 



^ XXV orva. The Geoponica give twenty-one as the maxi- 

 mum number. Columella (viii, 5, 8) makes it depend on the 

 month: " In January fifteen — never more than this; in March 

 not less than nineteen ; in April twenty-one, and twenty-one for 

 every month up to October ist. After that the number does not 

 matter, as the chickens hatched in cold weather nearly always 

 die." All ancient authorities agree that the number must be 

 odd, and that incubation should begin when the moon is 

 waxing! 



